An official with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) who was fired for allegedly telling staff to skip hurricane-hit homes with signs backing President-elect Donald Trump clarified that her team had “registered Trump supporters” during disaster relief efforts.
Earlier in November, the head of FEMA confirmed that Marn’i Washington was terminated after reports and screenshots surfaced indicating that homes that had Trump signs had been flagged to be skipped or were skipped under her direction. Her messages were captured during the response to Hurricane Milton, which impacted Florida’s western coast in October.
“We registered Trump supporters, we’ve given them service as well, just we avoided the areas that were hostile,” Washington said on the CNN program.
The fired official said that FEMA had encountered hostility from multiple Florida residents in the aftermath of Milton. FEMA’s guidelines, she said, allows workers to remove themselves from hostile situations or if they felt threatened.
“Yes, we’ve had people verbally express to us that our presence was unwelcome and unwanted. Some people had some tact about it and some people were not so nice about it,” Washington said.
Regarding the alleged policy on avoiding homes with Trump signs, she said: “I did not act on my own volition. Everything we did was out of the focus of safety and making sure our team felt comfortable. I don’t create policy. FEMA does. I just implement it in the field.”
On Tuesday, as FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell faced questions from members of the House, she affirmed that she encouraged the agency’s inspector general to review whether Washington was acting alone when avoiding homes with Trump signage.
The employee, Criswell told the lawmakers, wrote to around 11 staffers under her supervision that they should “avoid homes advertising Trump.” Criswell said her senior leadership team provided her with evidence and recommended that the employee be terminated, to which she agreed.
“I do not believe that this employee’s actions are indicative of any widespread cultural problems at FEMA,” Criswell said. Still, she said she would support an independent investigation into the matter.
FEMA’s inspector general’s office has not indicated that it will investigate the matter, however, Criswell added.
While acknowledging that Washington was quickly fired, Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) said that he wanted to know whether Washington’s subsequent statements about following agency directions were true.
“It seems this particular worker believes she is being treated like the scapegoat, and if that is the case, more people at FEMA must be held accountable,” said Perry, who chairs the panel that held Tuesday’s hearing.
In response, Criswell said she is committed to ensuring “nothing like this ever happens again.” In the meantime, a different team was sent into the field to contact all the homes that had been skipped over at the employee’s direction.
“I understand your concern and share your concern,” Criswell told another House panel on Tuesday. “I want to ensure the American people know that FEMA is there to support all people, which is why we are conducting an investigation and why we have asked the IG to look into this further.”
Florida’s attorney general last week filed a lawsuit against FEMA and Washington for allegedly discriminating against victims due to their political affiliation in the aftermath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton in Lake Placid, Florida. Helene hit Florida in September, followed a few weeks later by Milton in October.
A spokesperson for FEMA told The Epoch Times that the agency cannot comment on pending litigation, responding to a question about Washington’s public remarks about being allegedly scapegoated.
